Christmas in Glastonbury 2017

Most of England woke up to a Winter Wonderland today – carpeted in a blanket of snow and ground to a halt. Glastonbury saw strong wind, torrential rain, and then some wet stuff that was not really rain, hail or snow but came down as a sort of drizzly slush and melted immediately upon landing. The 6 year old part of me (which probably equates to about two thirds) was eagerly anticipating snowball fights, sledding and building snowmen with rude appendages. I was VERY disappointed. At 3pm I decided to emerge from my pajama and fluffy slipper cocoon and go out. Otherwise, there was a serious danger that I would lie on the floor, bang my fists and demand that the rest of the household produced snow immediately.

Once I arrived in town I was cheered up by the great effort that people put into decorating their shops and businesses for Christmas, pretty much everyone had managed some twinkling lights, while many of the displays would rival London stores for imagination and flair. I photographed the ones that particularly stood out. Click on the images to see a larger version.

I loved the corset and skirt formed from twigs in Haruka Clothes Shop’s window in Magdalene St, they’ve embellished it with imitation birds that are very realistic and it’s really quite magical.

Shops selling Elephant Headed Ganesha Statues or stone Buddhas artfully combined them with snowflakes and tinsel and somehow it worked. I even got a bit slushy (like the weather) thinking about how this reflected Glastonbury’s message of ‘Unity Through Diversity’.

Yin Yang’s window

Yin Yang’s other window

Dillaway and Dillaway

Lots of other displays caught my eye, here’s a selection.

Linda Ravenscroft’s Window

Wilwood’s window

Happy Glastonbury

Gothic Image

Gothic Image window

Goddess and Green Man always have a great display

Goddess and Green Man’s interior is full of Yuletide cheer

I headed into St John’s Church for ‘The Christmas Tree Festival’ which has been held every year since 2009 and features 50 trees. Local companies and schools make a donation for a tree and then decorate it to their own theme. I particularly liked Burns the Bread’s ‘While Bakers Watched their Buns by Night’ and Bancroft Carpet’s ‘Seasons Bleatings’ trees. The Goddess Temple has a tree, as do the Druids, amongst other organizations you might not expect to find in a Church of England building, demonstrating their mutual dedication to ‘Goodwill to All Men’ (and Women).

As twilight fell it started getting really chilly, as I reached the Market Cross the snow began to fall in fat flakes, the ground was still too wet for it to settle, so I retreated to the King Arthur for a hot mulled cider in front of the open fire. They were playing a Steeleye Span album and a couple of people were hunched over a game of Scrabble. I realized I was feeling quite Christmassy after all, even if I couldn’t build a snowman.

Glastonbury Market Cross

Glastonbury High St Christmas Trees

Take a look at my post from 2016 for more Christmas in Glastonbury High Street pictures. If you can I highly recommend coming to Glastonbury yourself to do some Christmas Shopping, if everyone you have to buy things for is resolutely normal then you can just buy things for yourself instead. If you can’t make it into town there is my Glastonbury Christmas Gift Guide 2017. Read an earlier post about Glastonbury’s shops here, and you might like this post about the Frost Fayre 2017 too.

Wishing all my readers a Cool Yule, Splendid WInter Solstice and a Happy Christmas, or if you don’t celebrate a nice sit down in front of the telly with some chocolates.

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